Feb. 28, 2020
Contact: Nancy Lee Gomer, Marketing Coordinator, 636-949-7535, or 636-795-1137, ngomer@sccmo.org
St. Charles County, Missouri – The St. Charles County Parks and Recreation Department is again teaming up with the Saint Louis Zoo to offer FrogWatch USA volunteer training. FrogWatch USA is a citizen science program and volunteering is open to individuals, groups, and families interested in learning about the wetlands in their communities by reporting on the calls of local frogs and toads. Being a part of this program allows trained volunteers to become directly involved with gathering information that can ultimately lead to practical and workable ways to stop amphibian decline.
The training session will be held from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Friday, March 13 at the Broemmelsiek Park Visitors Center, located at 1795 Highway DD in Defiance. You don’t have to be a frog or toad expert to be a FrogWatch USA volunteer. All you need is to do is to have an interest in frogs and toads, join the Saint Louis Zoo’s FrogWatch Chapter, participate in our volunteer training session, and commit to monitor a site of your choosing for at least three minutes twice in the evenings throughout the frog breeding season—February through August.
The volunteer training session is free and is suitable for participants 11 years of age and older. Pre-registration is requested; call the parks department at 636-949-7535 or visit http://bit.ly/FrogWatchTrainingRegistration to reserve your spot.
Over 2,000 amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction and many more are experiencing sharp population declines. This alarming trend may be a sign of deteriorating wetland health because amphibians can serve as indicator species. The valuable data collected will be submitted to a national online database and will be used for future studies.
FrogWatch USA was started by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1998 to report on observation of frogs and toads throughout the US and is sponsored by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Visit https://www.aza.org/become-a-frogwatch-volunteer/ to learn more, or contact Michael Dawson, naturalist instructor at the Saint Louis Zoo, at dawson@stlzoo.org or 314-646-4551.